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Monday, August 25, 2014

New Cozy Mysteries and Westerns Available Today

Cloaked in Malice by Annette Blair
Vintage Magic Mystery Series # 5

There’s nothing Maddie loves more than fabulous vintage clothes, but the visions she gets while touching them are starting to wear her down. Even so, when a beautifully dressed girl comes to Vintage Magic in search of her past, Maddie isn’t about to turn her away, especially since she bears a striking resemblance to her good friend Dolly Sweet.

When Maddie touches Paisley Skye’s exquisitely crafted child’s cloak, the vision she receives is of the ugliest sort: a decades-old case of kidnapping and murder. To give herself more time to investigate, Maddie enlists the help of her FBI Agent boyfriend Nick and takes Paisley into her own home. But when Dolly suddenly skips town, Maddie realizes that uncovering the folds of Paisley’s past will reveal more than one vintage crime.

The Hen of the Baskervilles by Donna Andrews
Meg Langslow Series Book # 15

A dastardly murder and the kidnapping of a prize chicken threaten to ruin Caerphilly’s state fair—fortunately, Meg Langslow is on the case of The Hen of the BaskervillesThe newest mystery in Donna Andrews's gut-bustingly funny, award-winning, New York Times bestselling series is anything but elementary. Meg Langslow is helping Mayor Randall Shiffley organize the Virginia Un-Fair, Caerphilly’s entry in the race to replace the old state fair (which has gone bankrupt). Before a line can even form outside the ticket booth, however, a pair of Bantam Russian Orloff chickens are stolen from their coop in the chicken tent. Soon, a rash of vandalism crops up at the fair, showing no heritage farm animal, prize vegetable, or artisanal craft to be safe.

While patrolling the fairgrounds, determined to catch the perp, Meg runs into her friend Molly, who has been building a successful business making goat cheeses. Molly is terrified that she may lose her farm because her idle husband Brett has left her for Genette Sedgewick, a rich hobby winemaker, and is demanding his half of the land. Meg enlists Mother's help to find Molly a divorce lawyer, but later that night, Brett is found murdered and Molly is swiftly accused as his killer.

Meg is convinced that her friend wouldn’t so much as harm a fly, but can she find the real killer before it’s too late? Will she track down the vandal who has been terrorizing—however creatively—the fair’s participants? And will Michael be able to convince her to add members of his new favorite heritage breed to their growing menagerie? Meg’s most hilarious caper yet, the curious incident of the hen in the nighttime will have readers rolling on the floor with laughter.

A Killing Notion by Melissa Bourbon
Magical Dressmaking Mystery Series Book # 5

Harlow Jane Cassidy is swamped with homecoming couture requests. If only she didn’t have to help solve a murder, she might get the gowns off the dress forms....

Harlow is doing everything she can to expand her dressmaking business, Buttons & Bows—without letting clients know about her secret charm. When she has a chance to create homecoming dresses with a local charity and handmade mums for several high school girls—including Gracie, whose father, Will, has mended Harlow’s heart—she is ready to use her magical talents for a great cause.

But when Gracie’s date for the dance is accused of murder, Harlow knows things won’t be back on course until she helps Gracie clear the football player’s name. If Harlow can’t patch up this mess before the big game, her business and her love life might be permanently benched.

Murder of a Snake in the Grass by Denise Swanson
Scumble River Mystery Series Book # 4

Skye Denison and the rest of Scumble River is celebrating it's bicentennial in style-with reenactments, a bingo tent, and a coal-tossing contest. Best of all, the guest of honor is the town founder's great-great-grandnephew, Gabriel Scumble. But his visit turns out to be short-lived when he is found dead. The murder weapon: a pickax.

Meanwhile, Skye's ex-fiancee is back in town. But is he here simply to create turmoil in her love life...or does he have a connection to Gabriel's death?

When Sunny Coolidge’s curmudgeonly boss, Oliver Barnstable, lands in rehab after breaking his leg, Sunny is stuck shuttling between their offices in Kittery Harbor, Maine, and the facility where Ollie is recuperating. And if putting up with temper tantrums from her boss wasn’t enough, his rehab roommate, Gardner Scatterwell, is a shameless flirt.

But when Scatterwell dies unexpectedly in the night, Ollie is convinced it wasn’t from natural causes. He gives Sunny a new assignment—find out who killed the old tomcat.

And speaking of cats, Shadow, Sunny’s feline partner in crime, takes a peculiar interest in the rehab’s resident angel of death—a calico cat called Portia, with an uncanny talent for cozying up to patients right before they pass away. Together, Sunny and Shadow will have to nose out clues to discover if Portia’s jinx had anything to do with Gardner’s passing—or if all his catting around finally got him fixed.

Ever since she moved to Sweet Briar, South Carolina, Yankee librarian Tori Sinclair has been the talk of the tiny town. But she's been so busy at work, winning over the sewing circle, and trying to forget her cheating ex that she hasn't even had time to baste together a pillow, let alone mind local gossip. Then she finds the hometown sweetheart dead at her back door...

Everyone believes the police investigator, who's just fixin' to link Tori to the murder in a love triangle gone bad. To clear her name, Tori will have to rely on her new sewing sisters and stitch together the truth- or be darned.

Avery Baker was once a New York designer, but inheriting her aunt's old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path home renovation. Now, with help from hunky handyman Derek Ellis, Avery starts learning the ABCs of DIY. But when the designer-turned-renovator finds clues that lead to a missing professor, she wonders if she can finish the house without getting finished off in the process.

Two outlaw brothers have been leaving a blood-trail on their way to infamy on the western frontier. Until bounty hunter Luke Jensen catches one of the black-hearted Kroll brothers away from his gang. But while Luke is trying to get Mordecai Kroll from jail to justice, he's ambushed by the Kroll gang and taken prisoner. And that draws Luke's own brother Smoke Jensen into the fight, guns drawn.

The Eagles Legacy by William Johnstone
MaCallister: the Ealges Legacy Series Book # 1

The Scottish Highlands, 1885. Two men, brandishing knives, attack a young woman outside a pub. Duff MacAllister steps in and saves her—killing one of the assailants. Big mistake. The attacker was the sheriff’s son, and now MacAllister is marked for death. His only hope: America.

Here, in the sprawling land of dreams, Duff hopes to start a new life with his American cousins. Unfortunately, the sheriff’s deputies are tracking him down—with nine of the deadliest cutthroats money can buy. Blazing a trail of blood and bullets all the way to the Rockies, Duff has to kill his enemies one by one—or die trying. But this time, Duff is not alone. He has a new ally by his side. A living legend of frontier justice. His cousin, the gunslinger known as Falcon MacAllister…

In Hangtree, Texas, any day could be your last. For on the heels of the Civil War, Hangtree is drawing gamblers, fast women and faster gunmen. Amidst the brawls and shooting, the land-grabbing and card-sharking, two men barely hold the boomtown together: Yankee Sam Heller and Texan Johnny Cross. Heller and Cross can't stand the sight of each other. And Hangtree needs them more than ever.

A Comanche named Red Hand leads a horde of warriors on a horrific path of bloodshed and destruction, with Hangtree sitting right in Red Hand's path. For a town bitterly divided, for Heller and Cross, the time has come to unite and stand shoulder to shoulder--and fight, live or die for their little slice of heaven called Hangtree.

Sixkiller: U.S. Marshal Dead Man Walking by William Johnstone
Sixkiller: U.S. Marshal Series Book # 6

Ignatius O’Reilly is famous for his beautifully crafted counterfeit money. John Henry Sixkiller is famous for hunting criminals into the most violent and dangerous worlds most lawman dare not go. Now, the Deputy U.S. Marshal is zeroing on O’Reilly in San Francisco, when the case blows up in his face.

Instead of O’Reilly, Sixkiller finds a beautiful woman and a meddling Federal agent from the Secret Service. O’Reilly gets away and the hunt leads Sixkiller after the woman, the counterfeiter, and the Fed into the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains. There, a mining town is surrounded by armed men, people inside are dying of disease, and, as outlaws converge, the line between right and wrong disappear.

Until Sixkiller takes out a gun and lays down the law—one bullet at a time.

The Butcher of Bear Creek by William Johnstone
Sidewinders Series Book # 7

There's nothing like family. At least that's what people say. But when Bo and Scratch come home to Bear Creek for a long-overdue visit, Bo's family kindly invites him to turn around and leave. His old friends and neighbours turn tail and run when they see him. Next thing he knows, he's in jail for the brutal murder of two saloon girls in neighbouring Cottonwood. Unfortunately, the real killer looks astonishingly like Bo. Now, with his buddy in jail, Scratch needs to ride to the rescue.

Ambush of the Mountain Men by William Johnstone
Mountain Man Series Book # 31

Smoke Jensen never wanted to kill, but fate had other plans, and the Mountain Man has left plenty of blood, tears and fury in his wake. Angus MacDougal, the father of one of Smoke's victims, wants revenge. Riding up to Big Rock, Colorado, MacDougal has decided that killing Smoke won't be enough. He intends to bring him back to Pueblo and hang him before a crowd. It's a bloodthirsty plan that might have worked, except for a beautiful young woman, and the small knife she slips into Smoke's hand. Suddenly, Smoke is on the run in the Colorado wilderness with no gun, no supplies, and twenty armed men in pursuit. Once, a man named Preacher taught Smoke how to survive in this wilderness. Now, as a brutal winter bears down, the Mountain Man will use those lessons well - not only to fight his way out alive, but also for vengeance of his own...

A half-breed and a white man. For years their legend has grown, but few know how far they will go for one another or the roots of their blood bond. Now, that bond will be put to the most deadly test yet…

When Matt Bodine and Sam Two Wolves came to Kansas, they didn’t know the Governor had just made the state liquor-free. But it doesn’t take Matt long to find a place to drink and a family of enterprising moonshiners with one stunningly beautiful daughter. Trouble is, while Matt is falling hard, Sam is being recruited by a sheriff who happens to have a lovely daughter of his own…

What happens when you mix 200-proof corn liquor with intoxicating women and two friends on opposite sides of the law? Big trouble. And more is coming: bearing down on the town of Cottonwood is a murderous bootlegger, hired gunmen and a gambler with a plan of his own. As a killing storm crashes over Cottonwood, the odds favor the man who is stone cold sober, good with a red hot gun—and backed by unbreakable bonds of blood…

Conrad Browning, a.k.a. The Loner, knows what it’s like to a have a family and a home. And he knows what it’s like to lose it all. Now, he has a met man living on the edge of sanity: a good man, a flawed man, a solitary man who might just cost The Loner his life...

The Past Won’t Let Him Go. The Future Is Even Deadlier.

Jared Tate is an aging U.S. marshal who has saved lives, made enemies, and planted a lot of bad men in hallowed ground. But Tate is in deep trouble, the kind that comes from a troubled mind. Not remembering as much as he wants to, not forgetting as much as he should, Tate has one person to trust. Because the Loner has made Tate’s enemies his own, taking on Tate’s demons and Tate’s fight. In the lawless and violent Kansas territory, a young wanderer and an aging lawman will journey side-by-side one last time—into a fight that will take every bullet they have...

More than sixty films have been based on the works of William Colt MacDonald, ten of which feature John Wayne. This volume includes two of MacDonald's most memorable novellas. "Gun Fog" tells the story of Jerry Knight, a destitute young cowboy who finds himself the loser in a big-money poker game. To pay his debt, he agrees to work at the Circle F without pay for two months. But he finds the stakes much higher than he'd planned when he ends up rustling cattle and framed for murder. In the The Red Raider, Old Dad Flint is out to avenge the murder of his son. Little does he know that a band of Apaches have laid an ambush for him in the desert.

The owner of a longhorn herd and his trail boss not only have to figure out how to get their cattle over the raging Cimarron River, but also then have to deal with the gun-toting ranchers who are fencing off the range on the other side.

Nate King and his family pride themselves on their ability to handle whatever hardships the harsh wilderness of the Rockies deals out. But lately their cabin, nestled in the foothills of the high country, has had some troublesome visitors. Nearby Ute and Crow warriors have banded together and set out to destroy the Kings' home...along with the King family. Nate has no choice but to find a new place to live. With a bloodthirsty war party dogging his every step, will he have any family left by the time he finds a new homestead?